Weekend Update: Baseball, Ethnic Foods, Tombstones, and Laughs

A slice of Summer so far:

After a two year hiatus, we finally went back to a Guardians/Indians game. It was a beautiful night for baseball.

 

My husband was doubly thrilled because some former Indians were walking around the loge level, taking pictures with fans and signing autographs. We gave these to our oldest daughter and son-in-law who have a dedicated baseball room in their house. For newer readers, they had a baseball themed wedding reception back in 2014.

Even though the Guardians lost, we were treated to a fireworks show after the game, set to music. It feels so good to do normal stuff again!

Speaking of baseball, my grandson played t-ball for the first time this summer. He LOVED it and was sad that it only lasted 6 weeks. He's signed up for soccer next. It was rough during Covid, not being able to participate in organized activities. He is very excited to start preschool this Fall.

We tried the Blue Habanero restaurant, which I saw in one of those 'Best Things in America' lists as having the best margarita in our state.  I ordered the frozen lime and it was good, but I'm not going to say it was the best without comparing any side to side. They did have really good tacos. I had the tinga tacos and my husband had the barbacoa.  **Note to Mark: They also serve tamarind margaritas!

We spent a Saturday afternoon saying goodbye to my kids' elementary school, which is being vacated due to a new building/location. The community was invited to do a final walk through. My oldest daughter and her family met us there. My son would have come too, but he was in Hawaii with his wife, so we didn't feel sorry that he missed it! It was a real trip down memory lane for all of us. I spent many, many hours volunteering there. This is the Kindergarten classroom of all three of my children. It was the largest classroom in the school.

And this was the Kindergarten cloak room for coats, boots, and bookbags. We reminisced about how my oldest daughter (3rd grade at the time) would help Middle Child off the bus, walk her to this classroom, and help her hang up her coat, etc. Eventually, the teacher told our oldest that she didn't think that was necessary anymore. And my oldest said she was thinking at the time, 'This lady doesn't know my sister!' LOL! We also saw the first grade teacher that all three of my kids had and we spent a good amount of time talking to her, taking pictures, and catching up on the last 20 years. She said that she missed the parents of our generation, which made me sad. I guess it's hard to get volunteers anymore, even for evening events. When I helped out, there were always too many people signing up for things, to the point of arguments about who was chaperoning field trips or planning holiday parties!

Do you know what else made me sad? Middle Child pointed to the spot in her 3rd grade classroom where she was on 9/11. We forget what an impact that made on children.

I've mentioned before that my dad and father-in-law are both buried in a huge veteran's national cemetery about an hour away. One of my close friend’s father is also buried there and she hasn't been back in 18 years, so I told her I'd take her some day. That day was last week. I bought some red roses, white/blue daisies and miniature flags and we decorated their graves and shed a few tears.

Afterwards, we went to a nearby orchard that makes cider and wine and enjoyed lunch with another friend. That’s me on the left.

In celebration of my daughter-in-law's heritage, she and my son made zongzi for Dragon Boat Festival Day. They are pyramids wrapped in bamboo leaves.

Inside was a sweet rice wrapped around red bean paste. This kind is a dessert variety, though some are savory. They both love to cook, so now that they live closer, we get to try all sorts of new (to us) foods.

Remember for my birthday we went to Hilarities to see a comedian? At the time, I put my name in a raffle for free tickets and I won! We chose to see a local variety show last Friday night. Some of it was funny, some of it was not, but it was a nice evening downtown. We had dinner beforehand at our favorite Lebanese spot, Taza. Their hummus is to die for! And that's how I'm wrapping this up.